UCOL’s social experiment

UCOL is getting into the
world of social networking to get through to - and create
some fun for – the second wave of Gen Y.

One of the
country’s most progressive polytechnics, UCOL is one of
very few to venture into interactive online networking, with
a bright spark idea that encourages young people to act out
their career.

UCOL General Manager of Student Recruitment
Mark Lockwood says it represents a big change and quite a
radical departure from the way tertiary institutions
communicate with students and potential students. “We’re
regarding it very much as a social experiment: We want to
see how Gen Y people respond to a really new concept like
this.

“We believe we have something innovative and cool
that will fit well into Gen Y social space,” he
says.

Act Out Your Career at
http://www.actoutyourcareer.co.nz invites participants to
make a video in which they (and their mates) act out a
chosen - or perhaps just dreamed of - career. Mark says it
can be any career: “Not just one you can study for at
UCOL.”

The video then gets uploaded on to You Tube where
it can be submitted for voting, by friends, families,
surfers and lurkers, and other members of the public.

The
prizes are worth winning. First prize is $3000 and there are
also Apple iPhones for runners up. The first 25 people who
register to make a video also get a free 2GB Flash
drive.

Mark says New Zealand tertiary institutes have been
relatively slow in trying to enter or even understand social
networking. “If they do get into it, it’s usually just
in the form of boring, unimaginative banner ads on Bebo and
Facebook.”

But he says that has to change, given the
importance and new habits of the target audience: “We want
to reach and create some fun for people aged between 16-22
years who spend a huge amount of their time interacting
socially with others on-line. This group makes up 43 per
cent of our current students at UCOL.”

He says UCOL is
interested in watching the effect of the viral component
with something like Act Out Your Career. “Like all Gen Y
phenomena, word spreads on line. Friends and family will be
attracted to the site, especially if they’ve been involved
in making the video.”

Mark says UCOL will monitor the
progress of the site and the interest it attracts. “So it
has extra value for us, as a form of marketing research,”
he says.

Gen Y is a catchphrase for the cohort of
individuals now aged between 13 and 28. There are 850,000
Gen Yers in New Zealand, representing 20 per cent of the
population, and 25 per cent of them are in or have graduated
from tertiary education.

ALSO:

"Unfortunately we are in crisis and this friendly dinosaur faces extinction… Our only hope is to try and raise funds to buy the building and restore it to its glory, either fully funded or with a viable deposit." More>>

Previously undiscovered letters and a story written by a young Katherine Mansfield were recently unearthed in Wellington City Library’s archives by a local author researching a book about the famous writer. More>>